Georgia O'Keeffe's first widely recognized abstract charcoal drawing from 1915 was Drawing XIII.
O'Keeffe made Drawing XIII in 1915 during a period when she was developing a radically personal approach to abstraction. The charcoal drawing uses curving, interlocking forms rather than depicting a recognizable object. It belongs to the group of works that established her as an important early American modernist.
She sent a selection of these abstract drawings to a friend in New York, and they came to the attention of Alfred Stieglitz. He exhibited some of them at his gallery 291 in 1916, despite O'Keeffe's initial reluctance. Titles such as Drawing XIII can be confused with later numbered abstractions, so the year and medium help identify this particular work.